Writing Fundamentals: Part 6

Office of Graduate Studies Author

12/19/2016 Added

612 Plays

Description

Part 6 of a 10-part Research Writing Fundamentals workshop presented by Dr. Rick Lombardo

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.211]This next section I'm gonna go through
[00:00:02.479]paragraphs, topic sentences,
[00:00:06.099]and we're gonna have a little exercise
[00:00:07.220]that's kind of fun, diving into paragraphs,
[00:00:10.209]and a transitions exercise.
[00:00:13.923]So again, we're doing an upside down triangle.
[00:00:19.339]From a general to a specific.
[00:00:22.566]So, let's take a look at the basic framework of a paragraph.
[00:00:28.473]I'd like you to take out a piece of paper,
[00:00:30.153]blank piece of paper and write these squares in there.
[00:00:36.139]And I put this together for myself years ago
[00:00:38.555]because I needed to see how this puzzle was put together.
[00:00:43.403]Those are obvious paragraphs, right?
[00:00:46.833]Draw those boxes out.
[00:00:55.809]Now, draw some thick lines at the top of each paragraph.
[00:01:01.032]Notice that the top line is thicker.
[00:01:05.315]Because that's introducing to your reader
[00:01:06.913]what this paper is about.
[00:01:13.893]What are those called in writing?
[00:01:18.085]Those thick lines?
[00:01:20.054]Topic sentences.
[00:01:21.028]Topic sentences.
[00:01:23.507]They're the king and queen of the paragraph.
[00:01:26.362]Why is it important to remember the word topic sentences?
[00:01:30.567]Why is that important?
[00:01:33.074]Because they what, what do they do?
[00:01:37.094]Introduce a topic.
[00:01:38.463]Tells the reader what the paragraph is about.
[00:01:44.218]Now when you become a very good writer,
[00:01:46.902]you could have the topic sentences in other places.
[00:01:49.583]But for now, stick to the basic,
[00:01:52.872]the paragraph should start with
[00:01:54.133]the king or queen thought that rules the paragraph.
[00:02:01.361]Now, if this is your introductory paragraph here,
[00:02:06.936]the important thing is draw arrows to that.
[00:02:12.752]From each of the thick lines to your intro thesis.
[00:02:18.831]This is what the paper's about.
[00:02:25.362]Now, that means they have to be connected
[00:02:27.745]some way to the thesis.
[00:02:30.181]And what you need to do as well,
[00:02:32.915]they need to be in a right order.
[00:02:36.952]The logical order, a naturally logical order.
[00:02:42.027]Go ahead and write, put these on your paper.
[00:02:45.204]Just scribble in those lines in each of those boxes.
[00:02:58.168]These are obviously what?
[00:03:01.448]Anybody?
[00:03:02.308]Sentence.
[00:03:03.144]Sentences.
[00:03:04.902]These are sentences.
[00:03:08.171]Now, you got that all scribbled in?
[00:03:13.030]Watch what I do here.
[00:03:17.972]All those sentences should be connected
[00:03:20.314]to the topic sentence in each paragraph.
[00:03:27.493]So that means if this says
[00:03:30.071]we're gonna talk about horseback riding,
[00:03:34.604]don't bring in rollerskating here.
[00:03:40.184]And I actually worked with a post-doc once
[00:03:43.072]who had three topic sentences in each paragraph.
[00:03:47.728]I was trying, help you start to think logically here.
[00:03:52.971]A paragraph should have one topic sentence
[00:03:56.005]and the sentences that follow should support
[00:03:59.163]or elaborate upon what the topic sentence
[00:04:02.215]you said you were gonna discuss.
[00:04:06.504]If it doesn't, it doesn't belong there.
[00:04:08.422]If it doesn't, maybe it should be
[00:04:09.447]the topic sentence of another paragraph.
[00:04:13.756]What do you suppose these are?
[00:04:19.824]What are these?
[00:04:21.177]Transitions?
[00:04:22.042]Transitions.
[00:04:26.322]They can occur when?
[00:04:28.163]They can occur between sentences,
[00:04:30.808]within sentences, and at the end of paragraphs to tell
[00:04:35.357]the reader what the next paragraph is going to be about.
[00:04:38.403]It can be an entire sentence.
[00:04:41.587]What most of us have a tendency to do
[00:04:43.916]is forget about transitions.
[00:04:46.898]The transitions are the glue
[00:04:50.120]that put your thoughts together for the reader.
[00:04:54.183]The reader desperately needs transitions.
[00:04:58.632]Remember the paragraph we saw,
[00:05:01.588]not in the Caribbean anymore?
[00:05:04.226]Somebody said it's more readable
[00:05:06.144]because there's transitions.
[00:05:09.855]And that's exactly right.
[00:05:11.961]You helped a reader move from point A,
[00:05:14.645]to point B, to point C,
[00:05:17.023]by the use of transitions.
[00:05:19.093]And we'll see this more completely in a little bit.
[00:05:25.809]So, that's a basic framework.
[00:05:28.931]I'm gonna overlay.
[00:05:32.684]Look at this.
[00:05:33.984]So we have your statement of purpose.
[00:05:38.146]You might give an outline,
[00:05:39.456]the detail of what the paper's gonna be about.
[00:05:42.575]But every paragraph, made your point.
[00:05:45.966]It's a topic sentence, a controlling idea.
[00:05:49.259]Your supporting detail.
[00:05:51.690]And you might conclude at the end of the paragraph
[00:05:54.070]or have a transition sentence
[00:05:55.831]that moves the reader to the next paragraph.
[00:05:58.743]And so on and so forth.
[00:06:00.273]Now this is, could go on forever.
[00:06:04.156]You could have 300 of these boxes.
[00:06:09.121]The last box, the final box, review main points,
[00:06:15.560]give the impact or importance, so what?
[00:06:18.232]There's an N here that means these can on indefinitely.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Writing Fundamentals: Part 6

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments